rung up and drifting down it from the west came
the sound of gunfire. As one man, everyone in the camp stiffened.

"Did you hear that?" demanded Fielding.

"I think I hear a Banning," Polasky said, "sounds like it's coming
from in back of us ... off to the west."

"From what our scouts have been able to pick up, that's the general
direction that the Rumi have been moving," Terrence said.

"But there's nothing over that way. What in hell could they be
attacking?" Fielding was on his feet, looking off in the direction
from which the sounds were coming.

Terrence was aware of an increasingly uneasy feeling. He got to his
feet and picked up his gear. "The sounds could be deceiving. We might
as well get moving. It isn't going to get much cooler before
nightfall."

* * * * *

An hour later they were hotly engaged with a large force of Rumi. Rumi
armed for the first time with heavier weapons, mortar-like guns that
hurled pods of smothering dust that caused almost instant
strangulation. Rumi who attacked suddenly, giving them time only to
drop to the ground and set up the Bannings and machine guns before
three hundred howling fiends came charging through the grass at a dead
run, firing as they came.

O'Mara was behind a machine gun and Fielding and Polasky each had a
Banning in action. They met the Rumi charge with a withering hail of
lead and fire. The Narakans lying as flat as their huge chests would
allow them were firing as fast as the automatic rifles would fire. The
Bannings swept the line of charging figures. As the beams paused for a
moment, the charge would take effect and a ball of fire would
mushroom skyward, leaving a dozen seared cat bodies on the ground.
Terrence swept his machine gun along in a swath behind the Bannings,
picking off what they left. Some dozen catmen made it to within ten
yards of their front but sprawled still or lay kicking briefly until a
Greenback put another bullet into him.

The Rumi were gone, withdrawing to the west and Terrence was yelling
and cursing at his men to keep them from breaking ranks and following
them. Three Riflemen and O'Toole were dead and Sergeant Polasky was
coughing out his life beside his Banning with a spring gun bolt in his
stomach.

"Those damn cats!" he was muttering when O'Mara reached him, "those
damn cats. We showed 'em, didn't we, Lieutenant? That Banning's a good
gun if you...."

They buried the Greenbacks in eight